


A Fair Trade

by Peregrine_Took



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - High School, Based on True Events, M/M, Middle School, cover all the bases
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-03
Updated: 2014-11-03
Packaged: 2018-02-23 22:40:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2558306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Peregrine_Took/pseuds/Peregrine_Took
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Oh god, we were in baseball together.” He points at Steve, who tenses, his eyes going wide and mouth drawn together. He stays like that for a moment, his eyes frantic the entire time before he nods unconvincingly and slams the rest of the water in his bottle, which results in him having a coughing fit. Perfect.</p><p>- </p><p>The story of Steve and Bucky, and how they lost each other, found each other, lost each other again, and finally came back together in one final grand finale. </p><p>Loosely based on true events.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Fair Trade

  
He remembered the face, the scrawny stature and even his name rang a bell. But he couldn’t figure out who exactly the new kid sitting at their lunch table was or where he knew him from.

  
Clint leans over Natasha and towards the kid - cutting off her and Tony’s conversation, a mouth full of the greasy still half frozen pizza, and just stares at him for a solid minute before speaking. ‘You’re quiet.’ The boy - Steve - nods, without saying anything. Natasha nudges Clint’s arm so his elbow doesn’t touch her food, and he straightens in his seat. He glances around at everyone, then back to Steve. ‘Just saying.’  
  
It’s only five minutes later, after Tony had announced he was going to become a nomad, after Natasha asked everyone if they had finished their papers’ - Due five minutes after the next bell rang, and a moment later Clint and Tony spoke in unison their different versions of ‘Oh Shit’ does Bucky recognize him. “Oh god, we were in baseball together.” He points at Steve, who tenses, his eyes going wide and mouth drawn together. He stays like that for a moment, his eyes frantic the entire time before he nods unconvincingly and slams the rest of the water in his bottle - which results in him having a coughing fit. _Perfect_.  
  
That was officially, the first time Bucky and Steve remember meeting. If either looked hard enough, they could find the old team photos with the god awful blue green jerseys and forced smiles from two years previous, but no one wanted to go through that.  
  
So they count February 2nd of 2011 at ten thirty-five - quite an early lunch if you ask anyone - to be the first time they met.  
      
-  
  
The year progressed as well as seventh grade could.  
  
Three weeks after Steve showed up, there was a school dance.  
  
They joke for two weeks. It starts off with who will ask who, who will take the dance too seriously and come to the school in a goddamn wedding dress, then they joke about actually going to see the spectacle.  
  
The Monday before the dance, Steve walks up behind Bucky in the lunch line, and taps his shoulder to get his attention. Bucky turns pulling an earbud out of his ear, he smiles. “Hey Steve.”  
  
“Hey Bucky.” They stand in silence, taking a step forward when the next kid pays for his lunch. “Hey, so are you going to the dance?” The words come out jumbled and too quickly. Bucky makes a noise of confusion. “Are you going to the dance, well, is anyone going to the dance? I mean, we’ve been joking about it and I can’t really tell if anyone is serious about going?”  
  
“Um.” Bucky purses his lips and shrugs. “I guess I don’t know.” The conversation ends there when Bucky turns to grab his tray of food.  
  
Three days later - two before the dance - Natasha sits down at the lunch table, sliding her tray between Tony and Bucky’s. “Everyone can come over to my place before the dance.” Everyone nods and she adds, “My mom’s making pizza.” No one questions it but Steve spares a glance to Bucky who’s laughing at something Clint said.  
  
  
It’s Saturday. They’re all at the school, standing along the wall of the left side of the gym. Tony’s the only one who’s dancing, attempting to get Clint to join him - but failing. There are a handful of other students actually dancing, and more than that are standing against the wall opposite to them. The DJ is obviously trying too hard and it makes it difficult to hear anything past muffled voices.  
  
They’re there for forty minutes into watching the lights how play on the wooden floors  
when Steve up and leaves, Tony looks back at the group and shrugs and Natasha looks to Bucky. Bucky sighs and exits the gym to find him.  
  
In the end, he finds Steve throwing up in the bathroom. He sighs and leans against the wall. “You good in there Stevie?”  
  
The bathroom door swings open and Steve’s standing there, looking mortified.  His hair is pushed back, his cheeks are flushed, and his eyes are wide with humiliation. “Jesus Buck.” He pushes past him and goes to the sink.  
  
“You going home then?”  
  
“Already texted my mom.” He answers quickly. Bucky nods and watches Steve wipe his face - though there wasn’t anything on it to begin with.  
  
Ten minutes later, Steve is gone and Bucky returns to the gym.  
  
He stands next to Natasha - who’s alone against the cinder block - and follows her line of sight. Tony managed to get Clint out on the dance floor, and surprisingly enough Bruce as well.  
  
“Where’s Steve?” She asks, her voice is easily hear over the music.  
  
“He got sick.” She makes a noise of acknowledgment and neither say anything about Steve any further. By the end of the night, Bucky had been pulled out onto the dance floor and even Natasha joined them for the final dance - which consisted of everyone grabbing eachother's hands, per Tony’s request, and spinning around in a circle until the song finished.  
  
  
On Monday Steve isn’t at school and Bucky doesn’t really think much of it, other than to text him to make sure he’s okay.  
  
He’s in his drawing class on Wednesday, the teacher announced a visual arts and dance show set for two weeks. Bucky’s using his pencil to attempt drawing a hole through his paper when Steve come through the door, lugging his backpack and another bag, he walks over to the teacher and hands her a pass.  
  
He sits next to Bucky when he drops the packs. “Hey Bucky.” He sounds out of breath.  
  
“Hey Stevie, you okay?”  
  
Steve nods, pulling open one of the bags and pulling out his sketchbook. “Yeah.”  
  
“What’d you have?” Steve looks up at Bucky confused, a crease between his brows.  
  
“Oh you meant the past few days?” He shrugs, pulling out the container of pencils from the side pocket of his bag. “I dunno, I think it was just a cold.”  
  
Bucky doesn’t comment on how a common cold shouldn’t last four days. “We have a show in two weeks.”  
  
“Hm.” Steve opens his sketchbook and shifts on the stool, moving in closer to the metal table. He rests one arm on the table, laying it against the left side and top of his sketchbook - though his hand moving in short strokes as he starts a new drawing. His other elbow is sitting on the table - the tip of his his thumb worrying between his teeth - all of his focus being put into the movements of the pencil. Bucky finds it hard to look away.  
  
  
The show goes about as well as anyone would expect.  
  
They show the students art work while the dancers dance. The music doesn’t really fit the subject of a lot of the drawings, the dances don’t really seem appropriate for the music picked, and the dancing/drawing mix (or at least watching the dancers while trying to pay attention to the new artwork flashing over them) is a bit of a mess.  
  
There’s a few times Bucky wishes he would have tried harder to have been able to be on the stage, but of course he doesn’t actually tell anyone that. Instead he watches the kids trip over their feet.  
  
Then when Steve’s drawings, only two of the five he asked to be submitted, are projected onto the wall, Bucky couldn’t take his eyes off of them. When the next kid’s art came up he looks down at Steve who was slumped in his seat, eyes averted to the ground. The rest of the show he wears a small frown.    
  
One kid’s work isn’t in the show and they hear about it the next day. He complains the entire hour, and at some point Steve tells the kid there’s nothing they can do about it now. The kid looks at him like it’s the dumbest thing he’s ever heard before leaving the art room. He doesn’t return for the rest of the hour.  
  
  
Months pass too quickly, and it comes as a sort of surprise that they're going to be eighth grade next year. Then they’ll be going to high school after that.  
  
  
At the tail end of May, the group is sitting on their ‘reserved’ hill on the playground, before lunch. Tony’s picking grass and throwing it in the air where it floats down and lands on Bruce, when he says, ‘I won’t be here next year’. He keeps picking grass despite the frown he now wears. ‘My dad’s having me go to a prep school.’ He says disappointingly before his frown deepens. No one questions him, but Steve and Natasha are both watching him far past the conversation and Bucky thinks he’s missing something.  
  
  
‘A cabin trip?’ Bucky asks, Natasha nods.  
  
‘A last hoorah.’ Tony chugs his chocolate milk.  
  
‘It’ll be a few days after school gets out. My mom and I are thinking Four days.’ She turns to Steve, ‘Can you write something down for me?’ Steve looks confused as he pulls out one of his notebooks. When he can’t find something to write with Clint throws a blue crayola marker at his head and when he takes the cap of Natasha turns back to the table. ‘A list of Rules. Number one.’ She looks down at Steve to make sure he’s writing. ‘First to fall asleep, first to be pranked.’ The group collectively groans and Steve looks up at her worried for a moment before sighing and continuing writing.  
  
  
The school year ends two weeks later, and Steve tells Natasha with a solemn expression that he can’t make it up to the cabin. She nods understandingly before hugging him and telling him to have a good summer.  
He says something along the same lines and at the end of the day they all board their buses and go home.  
  
  
Bucky really wishes he would have gotten Steve’s number. Then maybe they could actually plan to get together, or he could find out why he couldn’t make it to the cabin, or even just talk.

  
Around the middle of June - about a week after the trip to the cabin - Bucky lets himself avoid any social gathering, and instead opts to sit at home and watch tv, or work on dancing (because this year he’ll make the team, he’s sure of it). So the next time he sees any one of his friends, it’s on the fourth of July. It’s already dark out and a clock that shows the time until the fireworks start is at every corner in the park, and right now it’s at ten minutes and counting down.  
      
Bucky’s walking back to his family from the restroom, when he hears a familiar voice and then another with mocking tone. He follows it until he’s watching Steve being backed into a brick wall, and despite the obvious size difference between the two bodies, the look on Steve’s face mass Bucky think he could fight a bull.  
  
‘Steve.’ He yells out and gets both of the boys attention, and for a moment Steve looks relieved.  
  
The taller kid looks confused before he smiling. ‘Hey Bucky!’ It takes him a moment to realize he actually knows him. ‘Funny seeing you here.’ He takes a step away from Steve and Bucky spares a glance to him. ‘Me and Steve were just talking.’  
      
‘Funny.’ Bucky deadpans, ‘I’m here to get Steve before the fireworks start.’ Steve pushes past Rumlow and he and Bucky start walking in the opposite direction before he can say anything.  
  
‘I could’ve handled that.’ Steve rubs at his arm and Bucky sighs.  
‘Yeah, I know.’ Bucky puts an arm around Steve’ shoulders, ‘But I haven’t seen you all summer and I wanna catch up before the fireworks start and we’re forced to yell over them.’  
Steve nods and Bucky asks what he’s been doing over the summer.  
  
Five minutes into their conversation the fireworks start and they both look up at the colors as they fill the sky. Bucky finds a moment to send a text to his parents telling them he’s okay, and when he looks up Steve’s looking at him with a guilty expression. ‘If you’re here with friends I don’t wanna keep you.’ Steve starts to get up but Bucky grabs his jacket.  
      
‘It’s just my parents,’ He shrugs, ‘They’re wondering where I was.’ Steve nods and sits down. could I have come here with, you’re all I’ve got around.’ He says.  
  
Steve looks confused do he elaborates, ‘Tony’s left and Natasha is on vacation for the rest of July,’ He thinks for a moment before continuing, ‘Bruce’s somewhere I don’t know, and Clint’s probably shooting fireworks into his neighbors windows.’ Steve looks shocked and Bucky explain that he was joking. ‘You’re stuck with me tonight Stevie.’ He smiles at Steve, who’s wearing a similar, small but pleased smile. When the finale starts, both Bucky and Steve cover their ears.  
  
  
At the end of the night, Steve and Bucky exchange numbers, and Bucky realizes they live in the same city. ‘Why didn’t you ever take the bus?’ Steve explains something about having to catch up on homework (from the first half of the school year) and Bucky nods understandingly.  
      
Before they separate, Bucky with his family who've managed to find him in the madness, and Steve to where his foster parents are waiting in their car, Steve says something along the lines of ‘It’s been a fun way to celebrate my birthday’ and Bucky swears he’s going to get him a gift for the next time they see each other (which end up being two days later). Steve laughs and says goodnight, disappearing into the crowd that is moving towards one of the few parking lots around the park.

(Steve laughs again when he unwraps Bucky's present, which ended up being a nice pack of colored pencils he had found  out shopping with this mom).

  
  
School starts again Early September, and no one in their self proclaimed “Fellowship” understands how Bucky and Steve have become so close over such a short period of time.  
  
Two weeks into the year Clint asks, jokingly, if they’re dating. The both say no, but Natasha smirks regardless, apparently being the only one who can see where this is going.


End file.
